An Incident by the Way

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 1, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 43.

An Incident by the Way

THE scene of the incident, a beauty spot in the mountains of Switzerland. The gathering, a large company of English tourists, and an enthusiastic Swiss maiden who saw in it an opportunity to spread abroad the “everlasting Gospel.” Using the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, with other publications, she tells us her experiences as she began to distribute the papers:

“These are Seventh-day Adventist papers,” said a clergyman, when I offered him a copy; “so the Seventh-day Adventists are here also, I see.”

“Yes, Monsieur,” I said, “we are trying to let the light shine everywhere.”

Another clergyman said, “These are from America; your doctrine comes from America.”

“No, Monsieur,” I said, “it comes from the Bible and from the Lord.”

“You do not believe in the baptism of children,” he replied.

“No, it has come from Rome,” I said.

Again he said, “You believe that the end of the world is soon coming, and that the Lord will not save anybody after that.”

“Yes,” I replied, “but now is the time to come to the Lord. It is not for any one to wait until the Lord comes before finding His salvation.”

Then as I went on distributing papers, I found a clergyman smoking. I offered him a paper. He refused, saying,

“No, these things are from the devil.”

“Well,” I said, “now I will tell you something. I believe there is where the habit of smoking comes from.”

“Why do you say that?” he replied.

“Because it is an evil habit; it is a harmful one. You could not think of the Lord Jesus doing such a thing as going about with a pipe in His mouth. Our bodies are too sacred to injure them by such a habit; and you are a clergyman.”

Our talk attracted considerable attention, and he seemed to be quite embarrassed by it. Some of the ladies took part in the talk, and seemed rather to think that smoking was all right.

However, the first clergyman who had spoken to me came to me a little later, and said,

“Mademoiselle, will you come here on the steps of the station, and talk to the people about smoking, and tell them why you think it is a wrong thing to do?”

I told him that I could not talk English well enough to speak in that way.

“Well,” he said, “you can talk English well enough to do it, and you tell them just why tobacco using is not a good practise.”

So I felt that I must answer the call, and in the best broken English that I could command I spoke for quite a little time to about three hundred people, on the duty of caring for our bodies, and on the evils of the use of tobacco.